The Killing of George Floyd Sparks Worldwide Protests

On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis police officers responded to a call about a counterfeit $20 bill from a convenience store in the city's Powderhorn Park neighborhood. During the encounter, officers restrained George Floyd, an unarmed forty-six-year-old African American man, holding him face down on the pavement. Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for about nine and a half minutes while Floyd repeatedly stated that he could not breathe. Bystanders recorded the incident on video, documenting Floyd becoming unresponsive before emergency personnel arrived. Floyd was pronounced dead shortly afterward, and the footage swiftly circulated across social media platforms, igniting immediate public outrage.

Demonstrations began in Minneapolis on May 26, starting at the site of Floyd's arrest and expanding toward the police department's third precinct station. Within days, assemblies emerged in cities across the United States and internationally, aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement. Between May 26 and August 22, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) recorded more than 7,750 demonstrations linked to the movement in over 2,440 locations across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. In the weeks after Floyd's killing, at least 8,700 solidarity demonstrations were reported across 74 countries, bringing global scrutiny to racism and police brutality.